


To Be Happy in a Million Ways

by Ryah_Ignis



Category: Supernatural
Genre: (yes i finally wrote one with mistletoe), Christmas, F/M, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 20:19:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9014113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryah_Ignis/pseuds/Ryah_Ignis
Summary: Sam invites Eileen over for Christmas, accidentally sparking the other romance in the bunker.





	

"You know, you're usually the one tracking mud all over the place," Dean points out as Sam sweeps by with the mop for what must be at least the tenth pass through the library.

Sam grunts something unintelligible under his breath. Completely ignoring the fact that Cas is sitting in it, he moves a chair out of his way and motors on past. Cas raises his eyebrows, but other than that, he can't be bothered to lift his eyes from his book and react.

"Dude. She's not gonna mind if there's a speck of dust under one table."

Sam, who had dropped to his stomach to shove the mop further under a bookshelf, arches his back just enough to glare at him. Dean looked over to Cas for support, but Cas just turns a page in his book.

"We live underground," Sam says, gesturing around unhelpfully. "It's not exactly cheery."

Dean rolls his eyes. He'd put a lot of work into that Christmas tree. Did Sam realize how hard it is to get a tree down a spiral staircase? It took he and Cas something like an hour to figure it out.

"Eileen is a hunter," Cas says, finally marking his place and setting down the book. "She'll just be happy to have somewhere to go for Christmas."

Ain’t that the truth. Dean is still in shock sometimes that they have a place to settle and call home, even if it is a little odd. Mom is coming tomorrow along with Jody and the girls for Christmas morning, and Sam is bringing a girl home. This is the most normal their lives have ever been.

Sam opens his mouth to say something else, but Dean cuts him off.

“Dude, have you looked at your shirt lately?”

Sam looks down at the brown stain near his collar and dashes off without another word, presumably to go change it for the third time this evening. Despite himself, Dean smiles. It’s nice. For once, Sam’s biggest worry isn’t what Lucifer is up to, the Men of Letters, or the Darkness, or the apocalypse. It’s whether or not Eileen will like his shirt. (In Dean’s humble opinion, she’s more into what’s under the shirt, both literally and metaphorically.)

Unluckily for Sam, a knock at the front door signals Eileen’s arrival. It’s likely that Sam, in the far corner of the bunker that has his room, can’t even hear it. Always the older brother, Dean gears up to embarrass the hell out of him.

“Shouldn’t you be getting that?” Cas asks, raising his eyebrows.

“What, you suddenly lost the ability to open the door?”

He can’t find it in himself to even be mock-angry at Cas for very long, though, so he gets out of his chair and hurries out of the library and into the map room. By the time he makes it up the spiral staircase, Eileen has knocked twice more.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he says, before realizing that it’s completely pointless.

He opens the door to a very cold-looking Eileen. Despite the fact that her pea coat is buttoned up to the highest button and she has the collar turned up against the wind, it’s clear none of that has done much against the snow coming down.

“Sorry. Big bunker.”

“It’s okay.”

He leads her down the steps and into the heart of the bunker. Cas, who was apparently too lazy to get up less than five minutes ago, is waiting at the foot of the steps. He’s probably just as curious as Dean would be about a woman who can make Sam change his shirt three times.

“Eileen, this is Cas. Cas, this is Eileen. She’s a total badass. You know, the one with the banshee?”

At the description, Eileen smiles. She seems a little softer, somehow, than the woman he and Sam met. Earning her revenge had evidently made Eileen Leahy happier. Huh. Lucky.

“You’re the angel?” Eileen asks.

Evidently, Sam had filled her in on a little more than Dean thought he did. Cas smiles at her. He’s been doing more and more of that lately. He makes a few complex gestures with his hands—sign language. Eileen bursts out laughing and signs back.

“I didn’t know you could sign,” Dean says.

Cas shrugs. “I know every other language.”

Fair point. “I can take your coat.”

Eileen brushes off the worst of the snow before handing it over. She’s wearing a red turtleneck. It’s a good color on her. Dean has a feeling that Eileen has changed her clothes as many times today as Sam has.

“Sam’s gonna be here in a min—oh, there he is.”

Sam reappears, raking his fingers through his hair in what is likely a last-ditch effort to make himself look presentable. Dean catches a whiff of—is that cologne? Oh, he’s totally going to tease Sam for this later.

“Hey.”

Eileen brightens considerably at the sight of him. 

“All right, I’m gonna get dinner started. You two go—chat or something.”

Dean’s never made a ham before, but between the two YouTube tutorials he watched last night and the recipe he printed out at the library yesterday, he’s pretty sure he can figure it out. That is, if Cas doesn’t try to help much. 

He’d thought Sam was an absolute menace in the kitchen until the first time he’d invited Cas to help with dinner. He manages to burn absolutely everything he touches, regardless of whether or not it’s put in an oven.

“You’re on cranberry sauce duty,” he says, chucking a can at him.

Cas looks down at it. “All I have to do is open the can.” Then, “Oh. Glad to see you think I’m helpful.”

Dean pats him on the back, hand lingering a little longer than necessary, shut up. “Nothing personal, just cooking.”

Cas manages to open the cranberry sauce without incident while Dean gets the ham in the oven and starts getting the vegetables in order. They work in the same symmetry that they do on hunts. Dean likes this much better.

“Did you set the timer on the mashed potatoes?” Cas asks, just as Dean swears and reaches across him to set it.

“Did you salt the green beans?” Dean asks, just as Cas mutters something in Enochian and grabs the salt.

By the time dinner is ready, the only casualty is the carrots, which were roasted just a little bit too long and reduced to mush. Dean puts Cas in charge of setting the table while he puts the finishing touches on the meal. It looks pretty good, if he says so himself. A decent trial run for tomorrow, at any rate.

“I didn’t think you cooked,” Eileen says as she sits down.

Dean has to physically bite down on his tongue to stop himself from teasing Sam about the fact that he pulled her chair out for her.

“Neither did Sam, until he tasted my awesome burgers.”

Sam puts his hands in the air defensively. “Yeah, yeah, I underestimated you. Do you have to tell everyone we know?”

By the time they hit dessert, Dean is convinced that Eileen and Sam are playing footsie under the table. There’s so much UST that he can’t stand it. Every so often, Sam tries a little bit of sign language. When he messes up, Eileen laughs and him and manipulates his fingers into the right sign.

“Hey, Cas, help me with the dishes? You guys go sit in the library or something. We can have coffee.”

Cas follows him dutifully back into the kitchen, carrying a few dishes with him. The dinner has generated a few more than Dean thought it would. They could be here a while. Being up to his elbows in soapy water isn’t so bad with Cas beside him, though. They fall into an easy sort of rhythm. The moment Dean finishes soaping and rinsing, Cas starts drying.

“Dude. You are not humming Baby It’s Cold Outside.”

Cas looks at him despairingly. “I know it has worrying implications, but it’s very catchy.”

“You can say that again,” Dean mutters. “I swear, one out of five Christmas songs I hear is a version of that one.”

Despite himself, Dean finds himself humming along as they finish the dishes. Cas puts the kettle on. For the first time in his life, Dean really feels like he’s home.

Once the coffee is ready, the two of them make their way towards the library. They don’t get very far. 

“Um, Cas?” Dean asks under his breath. “Was that mistletoe there before?”

He’s ninety-nine percent sure that he didn’t put that up, but his little brother and Eileen are underneath it anyway. Eileen is standing on her tiptoes and has both of her hands threaded through Sam’s hair. He has a hand tucked around her waist.

Dean and Cas back into the kitchen.

“Well, I can’t say I didn’t see that co—”

Cas is really close. And yeah, Dean’s been paying attention to where he is all night—the constant bumping of shoulders in the kitchen, the way they sat knee to knee at the tiny table. But it hasn’t been this close.

“They stole my thunder,” Cas grouses.

And then, before Dean can process, Cas presses a soft kiss to his temple. Then, he smiles.

“Can I—”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s—yeah.”

Even though he knows it’s coming, Dean is still so surprised that it’s finally happening that he keeps his eyes open for the first few seconds of the kiss. Cas has to take the initiative and tug him in closer before he actually responds.

They break apart after a few more seconds. Cas rests their foreheads together. Dean smiles at him.

“You put that mistletoe up?”

“It wasn’t like you were ever going to make a move,” Cas teases him.

Dean leans forward just to make a move and prove him wrong.

**Author's Note:**

> Full disclaimer: I'm in no way associated with the Deaf community. If there's anything I need to fix, please let me know and I'll fix it :)


End file.
